[UPDATE #2] 6:33pm PST (9:33pm EST) Tuesday (Day Of Expo) ... went to wait in line for keynote at 2am ... took chairs (it was VERY COLD) ... managed to be right behind staff members from some online magazine/publication, but I couldn't determine which one.

This is the first time I have come to Macworld and participated as just a Mac User ... I wanted to see it from a new perspective. My estimate is that there were close to 5000 in line by 6am for the keynote speech. This is pretty impressive to see how many people paid an exorbitant amount for this Expo. The lowest you could pay was $215 ... the average pass I saw had paid $1095 - $2000. It would be interesting to know if Apple actually made money from this year's attendance.

I am aware of the following revenue streams for Apple ... for MacWorld Expo:

Admission price (admission this year was way beyond my expectations) I would estimate approximately 5 million in revenue from premium expo attendance packages alone.

Admission price (admission from general admission sales) - eventhough I got a free exhibotor hall pass ... I saw a lot of people forking over the $25 for admisssion to the expo. I have no way of verifying this data at the time ... but I would estimate some 20,000 - 40,000 individuals paid for the exhibit hall (and will pay over the course of the week) which = 500K to 1 million.

Then ... there's sales ... I would almost assure that every copy of iLife '06 (announced today) was sold or will be sold by the end of the week. It is immensely impressive. This is the first time that I think software (beyond the OS) will sell Macs.

Exhibitor charges ... vendors (such as Macally, Adobe, and Microsoft) pay high prices to have booths at MacWorld. Again, I'm not sure if these charges are a wash - due to the cost of obtaining the venue.

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Due to a technicality, my 20th place in line for the keynote was erased. I ended up getting back in line, but had to go into an overflow hall where I watched a live broadcast of the show ... there were approximately 2000 people in my overflow hall ... there were more than one ... from what I could tell.

I did not get to attend a blogger's lunch ... because frankly ... the time change and keynote wait didn't sit well with me ... I had just gotten into San Fran (from the East Coast / South Carolina ) at 8pm PST the previous night ... then I had to battle with a very stressful Asian shuttle to hotel driver and with just getting checked in ... only to rush out quickly to get in line for 5 hours ... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

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[UPDATE #3] I'm about to check out of my hotel and go back to the expo to see all the exhibits that I missed yesterday ... after my thoughts have settled a bit ... the name MacBook Pro ... still is the worst name Apple has ever come up with. I enjoyed just holding something named "the PowerBook" ... it was fun to say ... You may have Latitude (Dell)... but I have Power! The MacBook Pro seems like a a new square hamburger for order at the drive thru at MacDonald's ... or maybe a MacDonald's Gift Certificate Coupon Book.